“It is possible to say that (Russia’s) level of trust (in the US) at the working level, especially at the military level, hasn’t become better; it has, in fact, eroded”.

This comes from a Russian President who as recently as last Christmas wrote a cordial and optimistic letter in which he said to the then US President elect

“I hope that after you assume the position of President of the United States of America we will be able – by acting in a constructive and pragmatic matter – to take real steps to restore the framework of bilateral cooperation in different areas as well as bring our level of collaboration on the international scene to a qualitatively new level”.

Although Putin never declared his support for Trump nor any position on the US election, it is now clear that the hopes which any Russian President would have had in a US leader pledging to cooperate with and improve Russia-US relations, are now dashed. So much for the fake ‘Putin puppet’ nonsense.

These remarks were echoed by leader of Russia’s popular LDPR opposition party Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

In a Facebook post, Zhirinovsky said that if Trump continues on his current foreign policy trajectory, Zhirinosvky will happily toast champagne to a Trump resignation. This of course is a reference to when Zhirinovsky and his LDPR colleagues toasted Trump’s victory.

Putin and Zhirinovsky have now joined others from around the world who either supported or were optimistic about Trump and now find his foreign policy astonishingly ill-advised and have been open about their disillusionment and disappointment.